Gabby Giffords skydives on 3rd anniversary of shooting

Former Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, D-Ariz., who was seriously injured in the mass shooting that killed six people in Tucson, Ariz., two years ago, arrives on Capitol Hill in Washington, Wednesday, Jan. 30, 2013, for a hearing of the Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on gun violence.

(USA TODAY/AP) -- Former U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords has completed a skydive jump on
what is the third anniversary of the Tucson, Arizona, shooting that left
her critically wounded.

Giffords landed without any injury Wednesday afternoon at a skydiving site between Phoenix and Tucson.

Giffords, one
of 13 people wounded in the massacre that also killed six, was shot in the head and has
undergone intensive physical therapy. On Wednesday, she retweeted a
tweet from NBC's Savannah Guthrie: "Today: Gabby Giffords will mark 3rd
anniversary of #Tucson shootings by skydiving here in AZ."

The
anniversary also will be observed in Tucson with bell-ringing,
flag-raising ceremonies and church events. This week, officials in
Tucson also unveiled plans for a downtown memorial to honor the victims.

Giffords, 43, wrote an op-ed in Wednesday's New York Times saying she continues to improve.

"Many
may look at me and see mostly what I have lost," Giffords wrote. "I
struggle to speak, my eyesight's not great, my right arm and leg are
paralyzed, and I left a job I loved representing southern Arizona in
Congress."

But Giffords said that, while learning to walk and talk
again, she also searched for a larger purpose. She found it after the
mass slaying of schoolchildren in Connecticut in December 2012.

"It
shocked me, it motivated me, and frankly, it showed me a path. After
that day, my husband and I pledged to make it our mission to change laws
and reduce gun violence in a way that was consistent with our moderate
beliefs and our identities as proud gun owners."

Jared Lee
Loughner, now 25, was sentenced in November 2012 to seven consecutive
life sentences plus 140 years after pleading guilty to 19 federal
charges in the shooting.

Giffords and her husband, retired
astronaut Mark Kelly, live in Tucson. They have founded a political
action committee, Americans for Responsible Solutions, to support legal
limits on guns and counter the lobbying power of the gun industry and
pro-gun advocates.

"We will seize on consensus where it exists, on solutions big or small," Giffords wrote in the Times.
"We will fight for every inch, because that means saving lives. I've
seen grit overcome paralysis. My resolution today is that Congress
achieve the same."